142 The fiend PART III. before them. So that in a holy Than'kfulnefs to God, the Concern our Intereft has in God's Goodnefs, is not the firft Foundation of our being affected with it ; that was laid in the Heart before, in that Stock of Love which was to God, for his Excellency in him - felf, that makes the Heart tender, and fufceptive of fuch Impreffions from his Goodnefs to us : Nor is our own Intereft, or the Benefits we have received, the only, or the chief objective Ground of the prefent Exercifes of the Affection ; but God's Goodnefs, as ,Part of tone Beauty of his Nature ; altho' the Manifeftations of that lovely Attribute, let immediately before our Eyes, in the Exercifes of it for us, be the fpecial Occafion of the Mind's Attention to that Beau- ty, at that Time, and ferves to fix the Attention, and heighten the Affection. Some may perhaps be ready to objea againft the whole that has been Paid, that Text, r John 4. 19. We love him, becaufe he firJl loved us, as tho' this implied that God's Love to the true Saints were the firj? Foundation of their Love to him. in anfwer to this I would obferve, that the Apoftle's Drift in thefe Words, is to magnify the. Love of God to us from hence, that he loved us,while we had noLove to him ; as will be manifeft to any one who compares this Verfe, and the two following, with the 9th, loth and r rth Verfes. And that God loved us, when we had no Love to him, the Apoftle proves by this Argument, that God's Love to the Elea,. is the Ground of their Love to him. And that it is three Ways. r. The Saints Love to God, is the Fruit of God's Love to them ; as it is the Gift of that Love. God gave them a Spirit of Love to him, becaufe he loved them from Eternity. And in this Refpea God's Love to his Elea is the firft Foundation of their Love to him, as it is the Foundation of their Regeneration, and the Whole of their Redemption. a. The Exercifes and Difco- veries that God has made of his wonderful'Love to finful Men, by Jefus Chrift, in the Work of Redemption, is one ofthe chief Mani- feftations, which God has made of the Glory of his moral Perfeétion, to both Angels and Men ; and fo is one main objective Ground of the Love of Both to God ; in a good Confiftence with what was laid before. 3. God's Love to a particular elecî Perfon, difcovered by his Converfion, is a great Manifeftation of God's moral Perfection and Glory to him, and a proper Occafion of the Excitation of the Love of holy Gratitude, agreeable to what was before Paid. And that the Saints do in thefe Refp-ects love God, becaufe he firft loved them, fully anfwers the Defign of the Apoftle's Argument in that Place. So that no good Argument can be drawn from hence, a- gainft a.fpiritual and gracious Love in the Saints, ariling primarily from the Excellency of-divine Things, as they are in themfelves, And not from any conceived Relation they bear to their Intereft. - And
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